Gina Trapani

Set your DVRs on record tonight, do-it-yourselfers: Bre Pettis (of MAKE and Etsy) debuts his new TV show, History Hacker, tonight on the History Channel at 8PM. In it, Pettis is out to recreate inventions of the past using "stuff in his closet." Pettis writes:

The pilot is all about Nikola Tesla and the war of the currents between Tesla and Edison. In the show I learn how to blow a neon tube, explore wireless electricity and build an AC generator from a bike. I also go to Boston to visit an MIT space lab to see how the principles that Tesla pioneered are being applied to space propulsion.